OPM Disability Retirement under FERS: Flavor’s Envy

Modernity is typified by envy, although no one will admit it.  Envy is aroused when people discover that others possess and enjoy multiple flavors as opposed to the limited ones left for the common element.  Life’s flavors were once quite limited; you worked, ate, possessed a few items and hoped to marry, have children and live a somewhat rewarding life.

Today, with so many reality television shows displaying the extravagance of celebrities, the super-wealthy and those who own half of Hawaii and other exotic locations, flavor’s envy has become widespread.  The antonymic corollary to envy, of course, is discontent — which is likely more prevalent than envy itself.

Envy and discontent go hand in hand, which is precisely why it is never a good idea to go to high school reunions, or any reunions, for that matter.  For, flavor’s envy is always enhanced when one compares one’s past circumstances to the present and current status, and then with it the infringing thoughts of discontent prevail upon us: What could have been; the downtrodden sense of loss and envy.

Flavor’s envy has diffusely spread throughout every corner of society, and the dystopian narrative that many wealthy view as a coming reality — that there will be a world crisis and properties must be protected against the collapse of society — has resulted in private security firms being hired in anticipation of disasters foretold.

Society’s thread is thin and flimsy; it doesn’t take much for a flashpoint to ignite, these days, and flavor’s envy continues to spread in an invisible, microbial manner.  The great “equalizer”, if there is one, is that we are all mortal, and health becomes a reality check for everyone.  When one’s health becomes threatened, flavor’s envy becomes an irrelevancy because, without the former, the latter loses its meaning.

For Federal employees and U.S. Postal workers who suffer from an illness or disability such that the illness or disability prevents the Federal employee or Postal worker from performing one or more of the basic elements of one’s Federal or Postal job, flavor’s envy fails to have any essential meaning, precisely because the most important element of one’s life has become threatened: Health.

Contact a FERS Disability Attorney who specializes in FERS Disability Retirement Law and consider that Flavor’s Envy is merely a figment and chimera when compared to the importance of focusing upon one’s health.

Sincerely,

Robert R. McGill
Lawyer exclusively representing Federal and Postal employees to secure their Federal Disability Retirement benefits under FERS from the U.S. Office of Personnel Management.

 

Federal Employee Medical Retirement: The Comfort of Stagnation

It is easy to embrace it; and though we recognize what it may do to the water we drink, it appears not to bother us when it comes to our daily living.  Stagnant water can breed diseases and cause intestinal discomfort, but for our lives, it is often the default mode of surviving.  The monotony of reverting to old habits; of refusing to change; of mere existence replacing ambition, motivation, negation of newness and refusal to entertain different ideas, foreign concepts — in a word, to become an amoeba.

There is comfort in stagnation.  Yet, there is an obligation and a duty as one grows older, to listen to youth; to consider new ways and progressive ideas; to not allow the old to rule merely because it has “always been done that way”.  Yes, tradition is important; habit it comforting; sitting in the same sofa day after day and taking a nap provides a secure sense of monotony.  But in the end, is it good for you?

Medical conditions tend to push a person into that state of stagnation.  With pain, with cognitive dysfunctions, one wants to curl up in a fetal position and allow for stagnation to rule.  But the point of life is to live; it is to embrace the future, where the future is the palatine of the “self”.

For Federal employees and U.S. Postal workers who suffer from a medical condition such that the medical condition no longer allows the Federal or Postal worker to perform all of the essential elements of one’s Federal or Postal job, consider refuting, refusing to submit to, and recanting the concept of stagnation.

Consider preparing an effective Federal or Postal Employee Disability Retirement application under FERS through the U.S. Office of Personnel Management, and turning away from the comfort of stagnation.  Contact a Federal Attorney who specializes in Federal OPM Disability Retirement Law, and begin the process of turning away from the comfort of stagnation, and instead, traveling the path of the stunning — of a yet brighter future.

Sincerely,

Robert R. McGill,
Lawyer exclusively representing Federal and Postal employees to secure their Federal Disability Retirement benefits under FERS from the U.S. Office of Personnel Management.

 

OPM Disability Retirement Law: The Village

On the political spectrum, conservatives scoffed at the idea (represented as a target of a book written by a hated political figure on the left); and liberals constantly embraced the idea, despite repeated labeling of socialism and unwanted interference from others.

The idea of the “rugged individual” as opposed to a cradle-to-cremation nanny state — the conceptual opposites are characterized by the false narrative of extreme choices, of a disjunctive which is no longer applicable, and a failure to have a productive discussion.

Most people actually hold dear the idea of a “village” — of a caring and close community.  On the other hand, most people also want the opportunity to be able to become “successful” without the burden of over-taxation and government interference.  Can both be concurrently established?  Can a balance be attained?

Federal Disability Retirement is a paradigm for that balance.  For, while it pays an annuity to the Federal retiree based upon a disability which prevents him or her from performing one or more of the essential elements of the Federal or Postal job, yet it allows for that individual to remain productive and go out into the private sector and make up to 80% of what his or her former position currently pays.  It is a system whereby “the village” allows for both — an annuity from the “nanny state”, and an allowance to remain productive and “successful”.

Contact an OPM Disability Lawyer who specializes in Federal Disability Retirement Law, and consider whether or not you can qualify for entrance into the Village.

Sincerely,

Robert R. McGill, Lawyer

 

Federal & Postal worker OPM Disability Retirement: The Untold History

We live in historic times.  We are witnessing it.  We are constantly told that.  We sense it.  We somehow “feel” it.  Whether we believe ourselves to be “political” people, we are nonetheless drawn into politics by the mere fact of our existence within a society which involves political decisions, political input, political opinions and political circumstances.

History forces us to engage in politics; history-in-the-making demands our choosing of sides; and history as currently lived requires our attention.  But what about my own personal circumstances, you ponder — who takes note of that?  Why are the untold histories of countless thousands not important, irrelevant, and unnoticed?

That is the frustration of all: Of the untold history, the silent majority (unconnected to the popular movement of the late 60s and early 70s); the footnotes in historical compendiums which no one ever reads.

For Federal employees and U.S. Postal workers who suffer from a medical condition which will require filing an effective Federal Disability Retirement application with the U.S. Office of Personnel Management, the untold history is the one which should be taken care of as a priority, despite the public history which so dominates the consciousness of the public.

Contact a FERS Disability Attorney who specializes in Federal Disability Retirement Law and begin the process of initiating the untold history of your private life.

Sincerely,

Robert R. McGill, Esquire

 

FERS Disability Retirement: The Emperor Who Wore No Clothes

We all know the story; of human foibles and self-aggrandizement.  Of the Emperor who thought himself so important that he — with the help of all of the sycophants he had surrounded himself with — believed that self-delusion could carry him naked through the streets of his empire.  That is, until a child pointed to the Emperor with no clothes, and innocently declared, “Look — he’s not wearing any clothes!”

It is a metaphor for how many of us live; of going about knowing what we want to avoid, and where everyone else similarly knows it, too, but doesn’t want to declare it out in the open.  Why is it that we can lie to ourselves so easily, and how is it that others will cooperate so readily?

The world of illusions we create, however, are like houses of cards that can easily collapse and crack under the pressure of reality’s curse of imponderable harshness; we can only survive a lie for so long, before the burden of truth undermines the fragile solemnity of an impervious universe.

For Federal employees and U.S. Postal workers who suffer from a medical condition such that the medical condition no longer allows you to work in your Federal or Postal job, consult with an OPM Attorney who specializes in Federal Disability Retirement Law, lest you continue to work well beyond the point where the emperor’s clothes have been taken off, and it is only you who believes what everyone else already knows — that it is time to throw in the proverbial towel and reveal the naked truth beneath.

Sincerely,

Robert R. McGill
Federal Disability Lawyer

    

Federal Disability Retirement Representation: The defeating question

It is the question itself which is often “telling”; it informs us of where the line of answering and posited queries is likely to take us.  It is like the map that guides in a certain direction, the compass that informs one of the vantage point of one’s existence or the gravitational pull which pulls in order to remain cohesive with other heavenly bodies; the question itself may not even need an answer.

The latter, of course, is referred to as a “rhetorical” one – that which needs no answer, is asked without necessarily seeking a response, and the one that, standing alone in the silence of an unsolicited reflection, cuts deep into the queried subject in order to provoke a contemplative reaction.  But of the “defeating” question – is it ever asked or, if it is, what is its purposive intent and deliberative content?

It is the one that is avoided, and left unasked because the facts, circumstances and surrounding context will almost always already be known to the inquiring mind.  What is the purpose for which it is asked?

No, not to defeat, but rather, to admit to the already-obvious answer that is readily known, by virtue suspected and thus absented and avoided.  Plagues reported, germs suspected and sneezing people avoided, the defeating question is the one that you already know the answer to, but by the mere fact of not vocally articulating it, is intended to remain unspoken and thus carefully avoided.

It is like the neighborhood bully that requires running after school at full speed over fences and back alleys; and like the dog barking in the early morning requiring one or of the other of the spouses to get up and let out, each hoping that the other will think kindly of the fake snoring and each avoiding the direct obligation and love for the animal itself; the defeating question, once asked, is in danger of being answered and therefore brought “out in the open” for no one to ignore, anymore.

For Federal employees and U.S. Postal workers who suffer from a medical condition, such that the medical condition may require the Federal or Postal employee to prepare, formulate and file for Federal Disability Retirement benefits through the U.S. Office of Personnel Management, whether the Federal or Postal employee is under FERS, CSRS or CSRS Offset, the question unasked and avoided, and the one feared as the “defeating question” is quite simply: Do I need to file for OPM Disability Retirement benefits?

Already answered.  The only difference is, what is meant by “defeating”, is often within the purview of the inquiring mind.

Sincerely,

Robert R. McGill, Esquire

 

Federal Employee Disability Retirement Systems: The mindful gargoyle

In architecture, they serve a pragmatic purpose of duality:  they divert unwanted seepage of water by redirecting it away from the side of a structure, but moreover, they serve the equally important spiritual task of keeping evil spirits at bay.

In everyday life, the concept can take on multiple meanings; of a grotesque figure unattractive on the outside, but encompassing an unseen beauty within through his or her thoughts, concerns and conceptual constructs; or of the monster which stays hidden within a tortured soul, where the fantasy of our own imaginations loom larger than the realities we may face; or, further, denoting phantasm from Medieval days where knights and dragons slayed have returned in more subtle forms of windmills left churning in the fields of fear of our own making.

All of them are barely noticed, now; onlookers pass by the structures which jut with such figures of antiquity; of monsters and grotesque figurines, we barely notice in this technological universe of pragmatism where fantasies of spiritual fears are dismissed as mere shams abbreviated from the shamans of yore; and of those looming monsters which haunt us in the nightmares of sleepless hours?

Pharmacology and the innane science of hope have become the masters of our fate, as Darwinian determinism has replaced the Oracles of ponderous paths.  There are no more mindful gargoyles; only materialism and the tactile reality of a virtual universe we have created in repose of empty caverns, where vacuity of thought is mistaken for profound moments of cognitive clarity, when in truth it is the dissonance of our own creation which leaves us trembling in the corners of our own fears, paralyzed with haunting thoughts and haunted imaginings.

But that we could return to the days of Tom and Huck, and win the heart of Becky Thatcher in braided pigtails of forgotten innocence; but, then, we would have to give up all of those “advances” we are lectured about by insistent voices booming in megaphones of self-interested diatribes.

For Federal employees and U.S. Postal workers, of course, the mindful gargoyle is of utmost importance.  For, it is that symbol and pablum of life that interjects and disrupts; the fears which prevent us from progress are precisely those which loom larger in the creativity of our own minds, where such phantoms preventing steps taken to move forward are the ones which need to be slain in mind first, then in the world outside.

That is why, often, the first step in the long bureaucratic process of preparing, formulating and filing for Federal Disability Retirement benefits through the U.S. Office of Personnel Management, whether the Federal or Postal employee is under FERS, CSRS or CSRS Offset, is to speak with an Attorney, in order to “objectively” assess one’s chances and develop pragmatic steps towards a potentially successful outcome.

For, in the end, preparing, formulating and filing for Federal Disability Retirement benefits should reflect a pragmatic purpose — somewhat like the architectural utility of the gargoyles seen on structures of Medieval contortions, and not left in the dusty attics of fearful minds and monsters unslain in the deep recesses of cringing thoughts.

Sincerely,

Robert R. McGill, Esquire

 

OPM Disability Retirement Lawyer: The Pastoral Painting

It is that which we strive to achieve; a moment of quietude, an aside of reserved inattention; that plateau where sheep graze silently in pastures green, and the distant echo of a neighbor’s dog barking is merely but a contour from the daily hubbub of reality.  Perhaps the pastoral setting is but an idealized paradigm; but, without it, there is a sense that life is pointless.  We may engage in daily meanderings and wonder about teleological issues on high; but, in the end, something more mundane is the normative constriction which compels us to act.

There is a scene in an old Western, where Mose Harper (who is played by Hank Worden) makes it known that all he wants at the end of his trials and travails is an old rocking chair to sit in, to rock the time away in the wilderness of the life he experiences.

For Federal employees and U.S. Postal workers who suffer from a medical condition, such that the medical condition impacts one’s livelihood, the capacity to continue in one’s chosen career, and the ability to maintain a regular work schedule, filing for Federal Disability Retirement benefits from the U.S. Office of Personnel Management is tantamount to that metaphorical rocking chair.  For some, it may not seem like much; but one doesn’t know (as the esteemed Paul Harvey used to say) “the rest of the story”, of whether and what Mose Harper did after a few tranquil evenings rocking away.

For the Federal and Postal employee, whether that Federal and Postal employee is under FERS, CSRS or CSRS Offset, it must often be taken in sequential steps of advancement.  The idealized plateau as represented in a Pastoral Painting is often the first step in the process of further life-experiences; and just as Mose Harper asked only for a rocking chair at the end of the day, it is what happens the day after, and the day after that, which will determine the future course of one’s life beyond being an annuitant under FERS Disability Retirement.

Sincerely,

Robert R. McGill, Esquire

 

Federal Disability Retirement Lawyer: Catharsis

Medically, it is the process of purgation; in experiential moments of truth and recognition, it is the causal impetus to sudden change or need of change.

For Federal employees and U.S. Postal workers who suffer from a medical condition, there comes a time when recognition of the linkage between the medical condition and the mandate for change conjoins to create a cathartic moment of realization.

We can fight against it; one can ignore, disregard, suppress or otherwise pretend; but whether one’s imagination and creative cognitive dismissal can continue a fantasy of make-believe, the objective world around us remains steadfast in reminding one that Kant’s bifurcation of the world we live in, like cocoons in a protective shell of discontent, cannot alter the reality of the noumenal reality beyond the cognitive constructs of our own making.

Filing for Federal Disability Retirement benefits through the U.S. Office of Personnel Management, whether the Federal or Postal worker is under FERS, CSRS or CSRS Offset, is often the first step in recognizing the need for change; and waiting upon a true catharsis will often only result in the self-immolation of destructive purgation — for, by waiting for a crisis-point of that moment where change is necessary, the shock of coalescence where circumstances, the medical condition, and the sudden realization of the true state of affairs come to the fore, may be greater than was ever necessary.

Waiting by ignoring is never a wise decision; procrastination of the inevitable is merely an artificial extension of the coming moment of realization; and in the end, disregarding that which everyone else has implicitly recognized, will only allow for the fate of cathartic gods to send down that bolt of lightening when one least expects it.

Sincerely,

Robert R. McGill, Esquire

 

Federal Disability Retirement Lawyer: Time Was, When…

Reminiscences represent a harbinger of the state of existence and the mental attitude of individuals; once engaged, they reveal the past-oriented focus, as opposed to the future dreams of youth.

Do young people reminisce?  At what point does one engage in such leisurely exercise?  And the spectrum of historical context, or the lack thereof — does the limited span of a past life determine the narrow course of future remembering?

It is always a danger to place too glowing and positive a light on the past; for, as present circumstances may be a pocket of discontent, so the warped perspective may, by contrast, create a fictional scenery of the past by unknowingly diminishing and extinguishing less notable events once experienced.

For Federal employees and U.S. Postal workers who are subjected to the hostility of one’s own agency because of the manifested impact of a medical condition upon one’s capacity to perform the essential elements of one’s positional duties, it is natural to embrace the refrain, “In the good old days”.  Health often brings that careless attitude of flippant fortitude; it is when we have something that we unknowingly take for granted, and when it becomes diminished, or is suddenly gone, the human tendency of regret and return of rectitude begins to pervade.

Filing for Federal Disability Retirement benefits, whether the Federal or Postal employee is under FERS, CSRS or CSRS Offset, is often the pathway out of the muddle of reminiscence; there is, perhaps not yet known to the Federal or Postal employee, life beyond the Federal government or the Postal Service.  If too much time is spent in the past, then the robber barons of yesteryear pervade in the present, to rob one’s future.

Filing for Federal Disability Retirement benefits through OPM is not merely for escapism from a current “bad” situation; it is to secure the future such that there will be one, where one day in the twilight of a life, one can look upon the current negative circumstances and begin with the reminiscence of, “Time was, when…”

Sincerely,

Robert R. McGill, Esquire